Risk Management: AT Style

So for those of you who haven't heard, my hiking buddy Overload has left the trail. Here's the story:

6/17/2011
Moxie Bald Lean to ~132.4 miles from Katahdin.

Green Thumb, Overload, and I all arrive at the lean to around 5:30 pm after hiking roughly 17 miles. Average end of the day activities ensue; i filter clean water for dinner/breakfast, Green Thumb builds our fire, and Overload goes to clean his feet in a nearby stream. The water gets filtered, the fire gets made, and tents get set up. Yet after a while Green Thumb and I both notice that we haven't seen Overload in quite some time...

20 minutes later, he comes hobbling back into camp, barely able to walk. We ask him what happened, and he sits down and takes off his shoe.

An entire portion of one of his toes had been washed away, exposing soft tissue and nerves.

Apparently, his feet had been in REALLY bad shape before this, but all the time he spent in Monson, ME the two days before babying his feet weren't enough to save them...he had accrued enough dead skin on one of his toes to make it "washable"

Long story short, he could barely stand, he couldn't walk, and he couldn't even get his shoes back on. he tried cleaning it, but the slightest touch on the exposed toe caused him serious pain. so he figured he would sleep on it and see how it felt the next morning.

The next morning, it looked worse. And he still couldn't walk or put his shoes on. And after staring at it for about 45 minutes, Overload decided that he needed to leave the trail and get to a doctor.

Only problem was that we were in the middle of nowhere, and had no cell phone service. The closest road was 7 miles away, but it was through the way we already came, and wading through swamps with that kind of injury would almost guarantee infection.

There was however, an advantage to the lean to where we were; it was on the water. It was totally possible to have a boat come in and ferry him out if we could somehow arrange it, so I gladly volunteered to set it up.

I hiked 2 miles north of the lean to to the top of a mountain, and luckily got full cell phone service. I then started calling what few numbers I had...mainly from the AT thru hiker's guide.

I first called a ferry service (which we would encounter several days ahead). Turns out the "ferry service" was one guy with a canoe 20 miles away...not helpful at all.

The second number I called was for an outdoor lodge nearby...I figured they might have some people with boats staying there who could help out, but it was a no-go. I did get the number for the local game warden from them, though, and called that number right away.

No answer.

The ferry guy then called me back to see how things were going. Told him not very well. He then advised me to call 911 since all other options had failed and the local game warden wasn't responding. I reluctantly agreed, and called 911.

As soon as I identified myself as a hiker, the 911 operator almost immediately knew what i needed. after only a few questions, she transferred me directly to a game warden. 

Just by his voice and the way he talked, it was easy to tell that the game warden had plenty of experience rescuing hikers. After explaining the situation and where Overload needed a ferry to pick him up, the warden said simply "oh yes, we've had several rescues out of that lean-to...it's a popular place to call for help"....I don't know whether that's good or bad, but it's certainly not what I expected to hear...

I was on top of the mountain for about 2 hours making phone calls and coordinating with various officials. But within hours of getting off the phone, a boat showed up at the site to get Overload out. I had since moved on to the other side of the mountain, but I got a call from the warden the following day letting me know everything went off without a hitch.

...Even in the wilderness, I am still the Risk Manager.